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Tournament
Trivia v1.0
Hypertext Documentation
Copyright 2003 Evan Elias
[Setup] -- [Settings]
-- [Question Databases]
-- [Registration] -- [Misc]
Tournament Trivia is a 32-bit Windows door, and will run on the following BBS
software platforms:
Upgrading from a previous version:
Simply unzip the newer version into your existing Tournament Trivia directory, over-writing older files. Your score files and custom question files will not be lost.
INTRODUCTION
Tournament Trivia is a new 32-bit doorgame for Bulletin Board Systems. Players compete with each other in real-time, trying to be the first to answer
the current question. Scores add up from day to day, and are reset at the end
of the month, with one player emerging victorious. The game offers an excellent multi-node environment that also effectively functions as a chat
room.
Software Disclaimer -- Users of this program must accept the following:
-
TOURNAMENT TRIVIA is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties,
expressed or implied. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or
consequential, which may result from the use of TOURNAMENT TRIVIA.
-
You may not modify or disassemble this software, in whole or in part. Use of
decompilers, hex editors, bytecode modifiers, and similar programs on any TOURNAMENT TRIVIA
executable file is strictly forbidden, and voids your license to run
TOURNAMENT TRIVIA.
SETUP
In order to set up Tournament Trivia, perform the following steps:
Step 1: Create a directory for Tournament Trivia, and copy all of the Tournament Trivia files to this directory. Please be sure to select
a directory name that does not contain any spaces in it.
Step 2: You must add the door to your BBS's menus. Please click a
link below for specific instructions and screenshots for your BBS
software; these will open in a new browser window:
CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
The game has a special "config" command that is usable to change the game's
settings. This command is available only to sysops, not to ordinary users.
In order for the game to recognize you as a sysop, you must do one of the following:
Enter the door in local mode ("triv32.exe -l"). When in local mode, you
may use the "config" command. You can also grant sysop access to a
specific user account, by using "triv32.exe -l -username xxx" where xxx is the real name of the player. - In the Synchronet version of the door, the game reads the user's Security Level from the dropfile. Any user with 90+ security in Synchronet is considered a Sysop in the door.
To enter the game configuration menu, type "config" from any game prompt. From
this menu, you can change the following game settings:
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[F] Question Frequency
This setting determines how long an unanswered question remains before it is replaced with a new question.
(Default: 50 seconds)
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[M] Maximum number of clues
This setting determines the maximum number of clues that may be displayed for a question. The actual number of clues may be lower
than this value, since clues stop being displayed if most of the answer is already filled in.
(Default: 3 clues)
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[S] Show sysops on score list
If set to "no", players with sysop access will not be listed on
the score list. (Default: yes -- sysops ARE listed along with normal players)
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[#] Question File
This setting allows you to configure what question files are used by Tournament Trivia. By default, the only question files used are DATABASE.ENC and CUSTOM.TXT; you can add up to eight other files.
For information on where to download additional question files, as well as
info on how to add your own custom questions, please see the next section
of this document.
ADDING MORE QUESTIONS Default question file:
- The game's stock question database is DATABASE.ENC. The copy of DATABASE.ENC
that comes with Tournament Trivia v1.0 contains about 800 questions. Newer versions of the question database
are regularly released at http://trivia.doormud.com/sysop.html
-- each new release of the file increases the size of the database, adding new questions.
- In the unregistered version of Tournament Trivia, only 400 questions from
DATABASE.ENC are made available to players.
Using third-party question files:
- Several new question files from third-party sources will soon be available for Tournament Trivia. You can freely download these files and add them to your game via the "config" command (see Section 2 of these docs, above).
Third-party question files can be downloaded
from this link.
- In the unregistered version of Tournament Trivia, only 150 total questions from third party files (and/or custom question files) are made available to players.
Adding custom questions:
- Adding your own custom questions to the game is easy; see CUSTOM.TXT as an example of
some BBS-related custom trivia questions. With a text editor, simply add new questions into CUSTOM.TXT, having question lines alternate with answer lines. Be sure to press <ENTER> at the end of each question or answer, and ONLY at the end. It is recommended that you use a quality text editor like
TextPad or EditPad, ie, one that displays line numbers and has an option to disable word
wrap. With these settings, questions should always be on odd line numbers, and answers on even line numbers.
- Questions are limited to 160 characters, and answers are limited to 80 characters.
- After adding questions, if you notice the game acting strangely (displaying answers instead of questions), it means one of your custom question files has an <ENTER> line in an incorrect spot, and/or there's a question exceeding 160 characters, and/or there's an answer exceeding 80 characters. Please
verify that your custom files conform to the correct line formatting.
REGISTRATION
Tournament Trivia is shareware. There are limitations on the number of questions in the game, if your copy is unregistered:
Only 400 questions from the game's standard question database are made available to players. If you choose to add additional custom question files and/or third-party question files, only 150 total questions from these sources will be used.
If you register the door, these question limits are removed. The full version
of the door has 800+ questions in its standard database, and you can add any
number of additional questions through third-party question files and/or custom
question files.
Registration for Tournament Trivia normally costs $12 (US dollars). However,
you can register the game at a discounted rate if you have submitted new trivia questions for the game:
# of acceptable
questions submitted |
Registration
cost |
| None (full price) |
$12 |
| 10 |
$10 |
| 20 |
$8 |
| 40 |
$5 |
| 80+ |
FREE |
HOW TO REGISTER
ON-LINE:
HOW TO REGISTER
VIA POSTAL MAIL:
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Print and fill out the registration form (REGISTER.TXT).
If you do not have a printer, you may handwrite the information.
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Include a check or money order for $12 US, or less if you have a discount. If using a check, make it payable to "Evan Elias". (If you qualify for a free registration, you may skip this step!)
-
Send an
E-mail to the door's author and inquire about the current
registration mailing address.
-
Put the payment and registration form in
an envelope and mail it to to the address provided.
MISCELLANEOUS
Notes on the Synchronet version (TRIVSYNC.EXE)
- By default, the Synchronet version of Tournament Trivia does not create a local display window. This feature is intentional, to reduce taskbar clutter. If you would prefer to have a local display window, a /window command line option is available.
- The Synchronet version of this game does not support local mode play. To play in local mode, run the door32 exe's local mode, "triv32.exe /l".
Notes on the DOOR32 version (TRIV32.EXE)
- This version provides an interactive local display window by default. The window automatically starts as minimized, unless you are running the door in local mode. If desired, you can eliminate the window entirely
by using the /silent command line option.
This version of Tournament Trivia supports several command line options:
/D or /DROPFILE - Door information file directory and/or filename.
/N or /NODE - Sets the node number to use.
/SOCKET - Needed in EleBBS and GameSrv to specify the socket.
/L or /LOCAL - Causes door to operate in local mode, without requiring a door information (drop) file.
/USERNAME - Use in local mode to specify your user name.
/SILENT - Operate in silent mode, with no local display window.
/GRAPHICS - Unless followed by 0 or N, turns on ANSI mode. Useful if, for whatever reason, the game is not detecting users' ANSI settings properly.
Known issues/bugs in this version:
If the nodes of your BBS are spread across multiple Windows computers via a LAN, this door might not function properly. An example would be if you have one
Windows PC serve nodes 1 to 10 and have another, separate networked Windows
PC serve nodes 11 through 20, using a shared drive for the BBS. Setups like this are pretty rare for a BBS, but if you are using one, please
e-mail me for more info on the problem. You cannot install multiple, separate copies of Tournament Trivia on the same BBS.
This will be fixed in a future release. When running the door in Local Mode, on some operating systems, the user name that you enter in the dialog box is ignored and your user name will instead always come up as "sysop". This is a bug in the doorkit
used to write the door. For now, to avoid the problem you can use the /username command line option, ie "triv32.exe /l /username John Doe", to use a different local user name. - On Wildcat Winserver, if a user drops carrier while in the door, it may lock the node and prevent the user from re-logging on.
This problem cannot be fixed at the present time, because it is caused by a doorkit flaw. If/when a new C++ doorkit with Winserver support is available, this problem will be fixed.
Support:
Please consult one of the following sources if you are having difficulty setting
up the game or if you have any questions, comments, ideas, etc --
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